


Wildest Dreams

by rachlovesligers



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 12:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5164298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachlovesligers/pseuds/rachlovesligers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve still couldn’t believe Agent Carter herself had actually asked him to go out on a date, with her, Peggy Carter. Yet here he was, picking out the largest bouquet of flowers he could afford, on his way to pick her up from her apartment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wildest Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on tumblr a little while ago but it took me a couple of weeks to post it here because posting it here involves coming up with a title, and titles aren't my strong point.
> 
> This is an AU where Steve didn’t get the serum, but ended up working for the SSR in New York after the war. It's also the first time I've written skinny Steve, so I'd love to know what people think.

Steve still couldn’t believe Agent Carter herself had actually asked  _him_  to go out on a date, with  _her_ ,  _Peggy Carter_. Yet here he was, picking out the largest bouquet of flowers he could afford, on his way to pick her up from her apartment.

He’d admired her from afar ever since she’d started working at the SSR office. He knew exactly how she took her tea, he knew she loathed paperwork but got through it by snacking frequently, and even though his sight wasn’t what it should be, he knew she wore the most beautiful shade of red lipstick every day.

Peggy Carter was the most beautiful woman Steve had ever laid eyes on, but what really got him was the way she treated him. There had been no pity in her eyes when she’d caught him in the store room trying to overcome an asthma attack, she’d simply instructed him to breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of six, and sat with him until it had passed. There had been no mockery in her tone when she’d asked him about his previous dance partners, and her surprise seemed genuine when he’d told her there were none, that he was waiting for the right partner.

So he’d misunderstood at first, when she’d asked him to go dancing. He thought perhaps it was a group thing, that she was going with her friends and thought he’d like to tag along. But when he’d asked where the group was meeting she’d told him, “No Steve, it’ll just be the two of us. I’m asking you out on a date, if that’s something you’d like?” She’d seemed uncertain by the end of her question, and Steve’s stunned silence as he’d tried to get his head around the idea of  _Agent Carter_  asking  _him_  out on a date probably hadn’t helped. But he’d got his act together just in time to nod his head vigorously and tell her “Yes, yes I’d like that a lot.”

That was how he came to be standing outside of the building she lived in, a bouquet of peonies and tulips in one hand, his other nervously trying to smooth his hair out of his eyes. As kind as Peggy had been to him, there was still a tiny part of Steve’s brain that worried that maybe, just maybe, this was some kind of a joke, that behind that door there’d be a group of people waiting to laugh at him, laugh at this poor sap who’d really believed that Peggy Carter had wanted to go dancing with him. But Peggy wasn’t like that, he was fairly certain she wasn’t like that.

Steve knew, despite his close to unbearable nerves, that there was only one way to do this. He just had to suck it up, knock on her front door, and hope that whatever reason she’d had for asking him out on a date in the first place lasted at least until the end of the evening.

It had seemed simple until he heard the crashing sound of breaking glass. Steve looked towards the source of the noise just in time to see a dark figure falling from the third floor window that had just been smashed. He ran towards them, curled up on the ground, but before he was close enough to see their face they stood up and sprinted down the street. Steve didn’t have a hope in hell of catching up to them, but he might be able to offer help to whoever had just had their window smashed.

He rooted around in his pocket until he found the folded piece of paper Peggy had given him with her address on it, hoping she might know whose apartment it was, but the apartment number struck him. 308, the third floor?

Without thinking he ran as fast as his legs would take him, through the main door that had thankfully been left ajar, up the two flights of stairs that left him painfully out of breath, and along the corridor until he came to apartment 308, Peggy’s apartment. His knock got no response, neither did him calling her name. His next attempt was to break open the door, but a few hard shoves with his shoulder made it clear that wasn’t going to work. He was stumped for a moment before he thought to look for a spare key, feeling under the doormat, along the wall, until he found one, stuck to the inside of a wall lamp, and let himself inside.

The curtains blowing by the broken window and the shards of glass scattered across the floor confirmed his suspicion that it had in fact been Peggy’s apartment the figure had fallen from, but he only half registered those details. What captured his attention and made his stomach sink to his knees was the image of Peggy, out cold on her kitchen floor.

He ran to her. Kneeling beside her he noticed the blood on her forehead, close to her hairline, and he felt sick. Barely registering what he was doing, he slid his arm under her shoulders and lifted her slightly, cradling her against his chest.

“Peggy, Peggy wake up. Please Peggy, please.” His hand was on her cheek as he called her name frantically.

Her brows furrowed and he heard her groan softly, just before her eyelids began to flutter open.

He breathed an enormous sigh of relief.

“Steve?” she blinked up at him in confusion and he suddenly became acutely aware that it was their first date and she’d woken up to him cradling her in his arms and cupping her cheek after having broken into her apartment.

But instead of putting her down and stepping away, like he probably ought to have done, he froze.

“What happened?” she let her head rest against his chest, seemingly not put off by their closeness.

“I don’t know. I saw someone fall out of your window, and when I got up here you were unconscious.”

“Ah that’s right. She came after me because I was starting to close in on her and her involvement with Leviathan. I managed to get a good shot in before she knocked me unconscious, but I suppose she’s long gone now.”

Steve knew of Leviathan from the research he’d been doing for the SSR, but he had no idea who the “she” Peggy was referring to was.

“Will you help me up?”

Steve complied, helping Peggy to her feet and steadying her as she tried to stand. For the first time he noticed what she was wearing. She had on a stunning purple dress that fitted her figure perfectly, it was a deep V-neck cut and she wore it with a dazzling diamond necklace, perfectly placed over her collarbone.

“How do you feel?” He kept his hand hovering by her, in case she needed steadying again.

“Oh gosh, look at the mess!” She noticed the broken glass covering her kitchen floor for the first time and ignored his question, instead pulling a dustpan and brush out of a nearby cupboard and kneeling down to begin clearing it.

“Peggy, leave that, you’re still bleeding.”

“I’m alright,” she insisted as she carried on sweeping up the shards of glass.

Steve sighed quietly. She seemed relatively ok, she could remember what had happened clearly, she could sweep up the glass without too much trouble, but there was still a worrying smudge of blood on her forehead. “Do you have any iodine?”

She pointed him towards the bathroom. When he returned with the little bottle and some cotton balls Peggy was still rushing around the kitchen, putting things away.

“I’m so sorry about this Steve, I’d rather hoped I’d have a moment to tidy up before you arrived, but, well, unforeseen circumstances,” she shook her head and sighed. “Just give me a moment and I’ll be ready to leave.”

“Leave? Peggy we can’t go now.” Though it crushed him to have to cancel their date, she’d been out cold not five minutes ago, she needed to take it easy.

The look of complete hurt and disappointment that covered Peggy’s face surprised him, he hadn’t expected to see his feelings mirrored so clearly on her. “Oh, I see. If you’ve changed your mind then I suppose I –”

“No! That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

Steve paused for a second, lost for words.  _I’d still like to go dancing with you_ , or,  _let’s rearrange for another time_  would’ve been good responses. But Steve had always panicked when in the company of beautiful dames.

“I think you’re beautiful.”

A small but definite smile crossed Peggy’s face.

“But you’re still bleeding.”

“I’m, oh,” she touched her head and looked surprised when she saw the blood on her hand.

He set down the iodine and cotton balls on her kitchen table and pulled out a chair for her. Steve wasn’t sure whether he’d be overstepping a line by getting so close to her to clean the wound, he’d have to touch her face and it all felt so intimate. He thought she might prefer to do it herself, but she sat still, looking up at him expectantly.

He took a deep breath to steady his hands and tilted her head back to get a better look at the wound. It appeared to have stopped bleeding, and thankfully wasn’t deep enough to need stitches. From what he’d learnt of Peggy Carter’s stubbornness, he imagined it would’ve been quite a task to convince her to go to the hospital.

As he brushed her hair back from her face her eyelids fluttered closed, and the silky feel of her hair confirmed all his daydreams about it. He was ashamed of just how many times he’d pictured brushing her beautiful brown curls off of her face, of tucking them behind her ear. He probably lingered a little too long as he ran his fingers though the soft strands. Though Peggy’s soft contented hum seemed to indicate she didn’t mind it.

He placed one hand gently on the side of her face to keep her steady as he began. But as gentle as Steve tried to be, dabbing at the cut with the soaked cotton ball caused Peggy to wince.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, I’ve had worse.”

He tried to think of something to distract her. “I bought you flowers, though I can’t remember where I left them.” He thought he’d had them in his hand as he’d ran up to her apartment, but then she was in his arms and he had no recollection of what had happened to the flowers.

“You left them on my kitchen counter. They’re lovely Steve, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he smiled at her.

It was quiet for a moment before Peggy spoke again.

“I’m rather disappointed we won’t be able to go dancing tonight, I’ve been looking forward to it.”

“You have?” He didn’t manage to hide the confusion in his voice.

“Does that surprise you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Why?” Peggy looked up at him and her brows were furrowed. She really didn’t seem to realise that she was way out of his league.

“Because you’re  _Peggy Carter_ , you’re the most beautiful dame,  _woman_ , sorry, that I’ve ever laid eyes on.” He stumbled over his words, trying to make her understand. “You’re so smart, smarter than all the guys at the office put together, and you could take any of them in a fight, no question, but you’re compassionate too, and,” he was rambling now, he knew that, “and I’m just…,”

“You’re beautiful Steve.”

He was taken aback, he didn’t think anyone other than his mother had ever called him beautiful.

“You’re endlessly kind, and witty.” She looked down then, “but I suppose what I like most about you is that you see me as your equal.”

He was lost for words.

When he didn’t reply she looked up at him again, but neither of them spoke. He just gazed into her warm brown eyes, unsure of what to do, until she cupped his cheek and pulled his face towards hers.

His heart hammered in his chest and he became short of breath as their lips met, but he tried his best to focus on the good sensations. The softness of Peggy’s lips as they moved against his, the slightly bitter taste of her lipstick, her warm breath that tickled his cheek.

When they pulled apart all he could do was gaze at her, and her beautifully smudged lipstick.

He hated the thought of having to leave her now. She’d been interested enough that she’d kissed him, and she even looked pretty happy about it. He’d come so close to dancing with her, and maybe she would have even kissed him again, but she must have taken a nasty bump to the head if it had knocked her out and he didn’t want to take any risks.

Then an idea occurred to him. “Are you still up for dancing?”

Peggy’s face lit up, “I am if you are.”

“Then how about we put on the radio and dance here? You’ll have to teach me, I’d hate to step on your toes.”

She reached out to take his hand, “I’d love to, Steve.”


End file.
